In the field of electronic commerce, merchants are able to sell a variety of goods and services online. An online merchant may be, for example, a traditional merchant of goods with an online presence, a catalog merchant with an online presence, a web-only merchant, or a provider of services. In order for any of these merchants to sell goods and services online, customers must be able to make a payment to the merchant for the goods and services purchased.
Typically, completing an online purchase entails the customer providing several pieces of information, for example, billing name and address, shipping information and address, payment type, payment information, etc. Each online merchant may define the pieces of information it collects from a customer to complete a purchase. The required pieces of information are indicated to the customer in a payment form. On average, while completing a typical purchase, the customer may provide ten to twelve pieces of information in a payment form of an online merchant.